Stay Off the Line of Fire of Your AI Platoon ... or Else! (Steel Beasts ProPE)

Hello, folks!

The ASLAV-25 is one of the many fully crewable armored vehicles in Steel Beasts ProPE . Intended mainly for reconnaissance missions, the ASLAV-25 is an Australian spin off of the LAV-25 used by the US Marine Corps.

Nimble and small, the ASLAV-25 can take you to places no tank can go. This screenshot is from a deep reconnaissance mission I played a while ago. Image is clickeable.

As soon as you hop in your simulated ASLAV-25 you feel its lightness, speed and agility. It is a sense of empowerment being liberated from the threads and the heavy weight of a tank's armor. Unfortunately, any comfort brought by that washes away as soon as you spot an enemy tank or infantry fighting vehicle. More about this in a new blog entry that will come soon.

Fighting in an ASLAV-25 requires very cautious tactics. That I was practicing last night, when my platoon of ASLAV-25s was surprised in a nightmarish worst-case scenario: a platoon of BMP-2s with a 2,000 m+ field of fire on our left flank. The problem with BMP-2s is that they have ATGMs with ranges of 3,000 m+. Compare that to the 2,200 m maximum range of the ASLAV-25 cannon.

I wanted to get out of the kill zone and I didn't even bothered to re-orient my platoon. Full speed forward! I could see the fireballs of at least two ATGMs being launched. Move, move, move! Damn it, where is that fold of terrain when you most need it?

Quickly enough, the adrenaline rush gave way to the disappointing realization that my ASLAV-25 was no more. What the hell?

If that wonderful "after action report" (AAR) tool Steel Beasts ProPE has wouldn't be there, most of the time I would never understand what in earth happened. This AAR tool allows you to review the action, shot by shot, at the pace of your choosing. Here is the screen of what hit me.

There is nothing friendly about friendly fire. In all my rush, I ran my ASLAV-25 (foreground) through the line of fire of a vehicle from my platoon (background). The red line is the path of the armor piercing round. Image is clickeable.

I didn't know that blue on blue was possible in Steel Beasts ProPE.

Stay tuned for more ASLAV-25 action.

Cheers,